College Chalktalkhttp://collegechalktalk.com
Thu, 09 Jul 2015 15:16:31 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.6Thank You – CollegeChalktalk.comhttp://collegechalktalk.com/2015/07/08/collegechalktalk-comthankyou/
http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/07/08/collegechalktalk-comthankyou/#commentsThu, 09 Jul 2015 01:03:35 +0000http://collegechalktalk.com/?p=12616Send to Kindle FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ——————- On November 27, 2007, I was a newlywed talking with my wife about starting a college basketball blog dedicated to the Atlantic 10 Conference. (You could argue my sanity based upon that fact alone.) But I had grown up a URI Rams ball-boy/fan with a love for the A10 in particular. I played in high school, was a not a star under anyone’s lens… but had a knowledge of the game and passion to learn more. In 1994, Al Skinner, former URI coach and then the head coach at BC, recommended me to […]

On November 27, 2007, I was a newlywed talking with my wife about starting a college basketball blog dedicated to the Atlantic 10 Conference. (You could argue my sanity based upon that fact alone.) But I had grown up a URI Rams ball-boy/fan with a love for the A10 in particular. I played in high school, was a not a star under anyone’s lens… but had a knowledge of the game and passion to learn more. In 1994, Al Skinner, former URI coach and then the head coach at BC, recommended me to head coach Lefty Driesell at my undergrad institution, James Madison, and I worked for the ole Lefthander for a little over a season handling managerial and (VHS!) video coordinating responsibilities. It was a terrific experience being on a D-1 bench in 1994-95. Ultimately, grad school and career would largely separate me from the game until that day in 2008. My wife thought I was crazy I’m sure, but said to go for it. I thank her today. She has been unbelievably supportive for almost a decade.

I took a shot purchasing a Blogger.com site and began to move widgets around a back-end interface with the first version of College Chalktalk. I asked a few good buddies: Jason Rhodes, Brendan Hames, Andrew Greene and Christian Marge to help in various capacities and Christian and I wrote a few articles for a beta version of the site.

In early 2008, I cold-called Duane Bailey, then Associate Commissioner of the Atlantic 10, introduced myself and asked him if he wouldn’t mind taking a look at the site. Duane, always a progressive thinking guy, obliged. He got back to me a few days later saying something to the effect of, “The content is great, but it looks absolutely terrible. See if you can find a buddy to help make it look better and, if so, I’ll go to bat for you.” He was spot on, so we found Jesse Pugh, a designer, relative of Brendan, and friend to this day who helped with the very first iteration. Duane carried through on his promise too, linking from the official A10 site to this tiny, neophyte blog.

We felt a great responsibility to cover the game inside the lines, the right way. We wrote, chose games of the week, analyzed the A10 landscape, and the site developed a nice following. We gained credibility and made our first appearance on press row at the A10 Tourney in 2008. I remember writing until 2:30am many nights, never motivated by money but by a passion for the conference and game I grew up watching. We all had fun with it.

After that season, I ruminated about how to extend coverage beyond the A10, the league I knew best. I conceived the concept of the National Coaches’ Diary Series (NCDS), where we’d target assistant coaches – who had little voice at that time to grow their personal brands – but knew every bit as much about their respective programs as did their head coaches. The goal in year one was 50 coaches. Through cold-calls and help from A10 coaches like Kevin McGeehan, Jon Borovich, Bill Barton and Chris Mack with whom we’d formed relationships, we got there. I want to especially thank Jeff Tungate (then at Oakland) and Jay Smith from Detroit. With no background on the site at all, they took that cold-call at face-value, believed in the concept, and were the first two non-A10 coaches to commit.

In the pre-Twittersphere days, the Diary Series would grow to nearly 90 coaches from 22 different leagues writing in 2011, with guys from Scott Garson at UCLA to Rob Lanier at Florida and in between. High majors, mids, lows, you name it. It was a great labor of love, sending reminders to guys and working with them to grow their personal brands and share their authentic stories. Ultimately, the rise of Twitter would slowly cripple the NCDS over these past few years — giving assistants a lower friction avenue to sharing their thoughts than we could. But I wouldn’t change a thing. Thank you to all of those coaches – probably totaling 200 – who participated over the six full years of the series.

I also want to thank the dozens and dozens of Sports Information Directors and conference officials we had the pleasure to work with across the nation, particularly early proponents of the site like Steven Haug, Pat Pierson, Mike Laprey, Mark Kwolek, Marie Wozniak, Kevin Bonner, Larry Dougherty, Joe DiBari, and Dave Saba. I’d like to thank the Atlantic 10 Conference, from previous administrations to the current one under Bernadette McGlade; along with extremely resourceful people like Drew Dickerson in the league office. And great organizations too, like Rising Coaches Elite and others.

College Chalktalk at its peak in 2012.

The site peaked between 2010-12, generating tens of thousands of visits per month, entering into a strategic partnership with Blue Ribbon Yearbook headed by Chris Dortch, collaborating regularly with John Akers of Basketball Times, receiving a host of inbound links from official athletic sites all over the country, and developing an outstanding reputation among the coaching community and die-hard fans. Those early days were great and new contributors came along, with Ian Nolan, fresh out of college at that point, first beginning in 2009 and becoming my right-hand man along with Andrew — who has been with me every step of the way.

The NCDS buoyed the site visit numbers, shedding light on some talented contributors and offering them a reputable platform with which to write. I’ll forever be appreciative of Ray Floriani who, when the site was barely off the ground, offered to contribute. Others followed – and I’ll never remember all the names – but contributors like Bill Koch, Corey O’Leary, Ken Cross, Joe Dzuback, Doug Tifft, Doug Potter, Derrick Dukes, George Rodecker, Keith Gary, Chris Lee, Matt Swiss, Ed Isaacson, Liz Reising (Colleran), Jim Sumner, Jeff House, Brent Beaird, Josh Carpenter, Mike Morgan, Joe Knox, Kate Lee, Jay Walton, Mark McGiveron, Joshua Parrott, Drew Dawson and many others believed in the site, wrote for exposure only, and contributed quality articles, combining with the NCDS to help make the site one of the best independent sites in the country. Chalktalk was named to SportingNews #MustFollow list multiple times, recognized as one of the nation’s eight big blogs along with Yahoo’s ‘The Dagger’ and other big time media sites. Thank you!

Many contributors have gone on to secure paying gigs in sports and improve their resumes as writers and analysts. That’s what I will reflect most positively upon when I look back.

Thanks also to the partners/sponsors we’ve had like Synergy, Gazelle Group and Global Sports Academy and those sites who entered into reciprocal linking arrangements over the years. Thanks to YardBarker and the Fox Sports Digital Network for accepting us in 2012.

Now is the right time to sunset this website. For a host of reasons related to market dynamics, decreasing visits, family/personal time priorities, and constraints from an editing and site operations perspective, etc. The brand will, however, live on indirectly in a podcast for CoxHub.com beginning soon.

Finally and most importantly, thank you to every single visitor who has read this site over the past eight years. You all are the reason that it rarely, if ever, felt like work… knowing that the information shared and the articles written were well-received by readers throughout the college basketball community.

As John Akers told me back in 2008, “So long as you can tell people why, rather than what… you’ll be relevant.” My hope is that this website was very much a relevant part of your daily, weekly, or monthly basketball intake for the past eight seasons. So long… for now.

]]>http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/07/08/collegechalktalk-comthankyou/feed/0College Chalktalk’s spring/summer schedulehttp://collegechalktalk.com/2015/04/22/college-chalktalks-summer-schedule/
http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/04/22/college-chalktalks-summer-schedule/#commentsWed, 22 Apr 2015 11:57:31 +0000http://collegechalktalk.com/?p=11748Another great season of college basketball is in the books and that means it’s also time for us to re-charge. We’ll be on a light publishing schedule over the next few months with some occasional maintenance time mixed in as we tinker with the site (as we do every year). Any questions or comments, email us at info@collegechalktalk.com. – Chris DiSano

Another great season of college basketball is in the books and that means it’s also time for us to re-charge. We’ll be on a light publishing schedule over the next few months with some occasional maintenance time mixed in as we tinker with the site (as we do every year).

]]>http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/04/22/college-chalktalks-summer-schedule/feed/0Hirings of Barnes, Howland, Johnson continue to boost SEChttp://collegechalktalk.com/2015/04/06/hirings-of-barnes-howland-johnson-continue-to-boost-sec/
http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/04/06/hirings-of-barnes-howland-johnson-continue-to-boost-sec/#commentsMon, 06 Apr 2015 19:04:33 +0000http://collegechalktalk.com/?p=12604The SEC has John Calipari, Billy Donovan, Bruce Pearl, Frank Martin, and Kevin Stallings, among others, but the latest trifecta of coaching hirings has made the league an even tougher and will upgrade the recruiting as well. Rick Barnes was, metaphorically, unemployed all of about 15 minutes after his firing at Texas. Tennessee AD Dave Hart stepped to and reacted quickly once Barnes was let go at Texas. After spending 17 years in Austin, he landed Barnes, who is the Longhorns’ all-time winningest coach as his career total is 604 wins at George Mason, Providence, Clemson, and Texas. […]

The SEC has John Calipari, Billy Donovan, Bruce Pearl, Frank Martin, and Kevin Stallings, among others, but the latest trifecta of coaching hirings has made the league an even tougher and will upgrade the recruiting as well.

Rick Barnes was, metaphorically, unemployed all of about 15 minutes after his firing at Texas. Tennessee AD Dave Hart stepped to and reacted quickly once Barnes was let go at Texas. After spending 17 years in Austin, he landed Barnes, who is the Longhorns’ all-time winningest coach as his career total is 604 wins at George Mason, Providence, Clemson, and Texas. Barnes has had a penchant for putting many players in the NBA as players like Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, D.J. Augustin, Avery Bradley, Tristan Thompson, and Cory Joseph, left after one or two years in the program. It’s a chemistry issue, to say the least, but one the Volunteers would reach for immediately, if it could get them back to the six-year run of Pearl, which equated to six NCAA Tournament appearances and various deep runs in March.

Rick Barnes’s hiring at Tennessee equates to the stability that the Volunteers’ program has looked for since Bruce Pearl’s six year run on Rocky Top. (Credit: Matt Hempel/UT Athletics)

Barnes, who grew up in Hickory, N.C., which is about 200 miles from Knoxville, will bring a sense of stability back to the program as Barnes is a legitimate hire who certainly will be in Knoxville for a while.

“The fact that so many people, once the news broke that I was involved, just everyone telling me ‘Hey, it’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be great.’ With that said, I feel like it’s 1987 again and I’m with Dave and I’m just glad that we’re going to get to do something really special and we’re going to do something really big.”

Hart gave Barnes his first interview at East Carolina in 1987.

Stability is at the top of the agenda when he hired Barnes. Since 2011, when the NCAA trumped up minimal charges on Pearl, who is now rebuilding the Auburn program, Tennessee has been in dire need of a coach it could latch on to. Cuonzo Martin could have been that, but the Tennessee fan based refused to embrace Martin although he led them to the Sweet 16 in his third and final year where the Vols were ousted by Michigan on a controversial charging call on Jarnell Stokes in the waning moments of the game.

Then, this past season, Donnie Tyndall barely had a shot as the NCAA started citing him for violations of the academic and financial aid nature in his short tenure at Southern Miss. Now, Barnes walks into a good situation at Knoxville where the fans will embrace him if he, of course, wins.

“I would work for him (Hart) on a handshake and I fully expect this to be my last job, and for him and this university, I promise you we are going to put together a staff and we’re going to go at it as hard as we can go at it,” said Barnes, “We know we’re in a great league, which I think only makes you better. There’s obviously a standard that’s been set in this league.

Ben Howland to Mississippi State may seem like a strange pairing, but even though Howland was living in beautiful Santa Barbara, Calif., he knew he wanted to coach again. That’s what the dedication and love of college basketball can do – lure you from the beaches of Santa Barbara to Starkville, Miss.

Howland’s resume is impressive with the 400-plus wins, four Pac-12 titles at UCLA and he is the only coach since John Wooden to lead the Bruins to three consecutive Final Fours. Like Barnes at Texas, he had a great run at UCLA, with a 68-percent winning percentage, but in the end, he couldn’t get the Bruins back into the last weekend of the season. That, plus the lack of style and pizzazz at the premiere basketball program in L.A. costed him in the end.

Mississippi State is a great place for Howland to resurrect his career as the Bulldogs have not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2009 under Rick Stansbury, the leader in all-time wins and NCAA appearances of the program.

“I expect our team to be a team that is tough and that is one of the things that, when I visited and was thinking about this job with Scott (Strickland, the MSU AD) that really impressed me with talking to him was the vision and understanding of what it takes to be successful here at State,” noted Howland, “Defense will be and always will be a priority for me. I am a strong believer that championships are won and started at the defensive end of the floor.”

Howland, a seasoned veteran of 32 years, will not change his formula as he takes over at MSU. He noted that he can attract the same types of players here that he did at UCLA.

“You’ve got to be able to project,” said Howland, “Russell Westbrook was not a highly recruited player coming out of high school. He was a kid that signed in the late period. I bet you there are very few kids who signed in the late period that were very highly recruited players.”

Avery Johnson’s hire at Alabama may be every bit as unlikely as Howland to Mississippi State, but Johnson has an NBA pedigree and a style of play that should attract better talent to Tuscaloosa. In fact, Auburn’s Pearl calls it “a great hire” by the Crimson Tide. Basketball fortunes in Alabama are changing plenty fast with Auburn hiring Pearl last year and now Johnson, whose son plays at Texas A&M, set to try to build Alabama back into an NCAA Tournament player and SEC contender. The tough part of the Alabama situation is that Anthony grant is an excellent basketball coach who set the ground work for Shaka Smart to be successful at VCU. He just didn’t have the support in Tuscaloosa that Johnson, of course, will look for as well.

Johnson won 440 games as the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets in a seven-year run. He was an NBA analyst on ESPN for nearly the last three years. Johnson is more of an unconventional hire because he has never coached at the college level or recruited players for college; however, with his NBA experience and the influence of great coaches like Don Nelson and Gregg Popovich, the ties to the NBA will sell themselves.

“I think with all three hires – instant credibility, instant name recognition,” Pearl told WJOX radio in Birmingham on Monday, “Instant reaction across the country is your league just got better.”

]]>http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/04/06/hirings-of-barnes-howland-johnson-continue-to-boost-sec/feed/0Wildcats almost in a no-win situation, on and off the courthttp://collegechalktalk.com/2015/04/03/wildcats-almost-in-a-no-win-situation-on-and-off-the-court/
http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/04/03/wildcats-almost-in-a-no-win-situation-on-and-off-the-court/#commentsFri, 03 Apr 2015 18:26:59 +0000http://collegechalktalk.com/?p=12600For Kentucky and John Calipari, the 38-0 season, heading into this weekend’s Final Four in Indianapolis, is good for a slap on the back and a “good job, Cal,” but even at it’s height, something that has never been done in history, the tenor is almost predictable if UK cuts down the nets on Monday night. Calipari and his team, loaded with McDonald’s All-Americans and elite talent, will be greeted with “Congratulations, that’s what you should have done!” Upon a win or with a loss, UK will be greeted with a mantra of being somewhat of a flop […]

For Kentucky and John Calipari, the 38-0 season, heading into this weekend’s Final Four in Indianapolis, is good for a slap on the back and a “good job, Cal,” but even at it’s height, something that has never been done in history, the tenor is almost predictable if UK cuts down the nets on Monday night.

Calipari and his team, loaded with McDonald’s All-Americans and elite talent, will be greeted with “Congratulations, that’s what you should have done!” Upon a win or with a loss, UK will be greeted with a mantra of being somewhat of a flop at 38-1 or 39-1. It’s a totally unfair assessment. It generally permeates from Kentucky-haters and people who either do not like Calipari or whose basketball knowledge is vaguely beyond that the sphere is orange and has air in it.

There are so many intangibles that have played into Kentucky’s perfect 38-0 season. The Wildcats are looking for two more wins to make the ultimate history. Credit: UK Athletics

Simply put, Calipari should be national coach-of-the-year in all of the polls across the boards. Where is there a tougher job in the world that to take 9-10 kids who were elite, all-everything performers in high school and blend them into a basketball team that shares the ball and gives of themselves in all phases like this team has? It has been truly one of the most amazing coaching jobs in the history of the game.

It’s amazing, though, that Calipari and many of his contemporaries still do not get the due accolades that people in other businesses receive. These players, not only the plethora at Kentucky, but many across the country at all levels, are elite performers who have a gift and a calling to the game, but because it is in the sports world, it goes unnoticed through other forums.

“I will tell you, we have universities here around this country, some of the top, that encourage genius, kids to move on and do their things if they stayed one or two years,” explained Calipari, “As a matter of fact, they’ll invest in them financially and tell them, ‘If it doesn’t go, you can come back and your position will always be there.’ I don’t understand why it’s a problem if it’s the same with basketball players.”

Calipari makes a great point. No other professors on college campuses are going to put students, who are elite, immediately into jobs making millions of dollars and especially at 19 or 20-years old. That’s what people like John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Mike Krzyzewski, and many others do in basketball as well as their coaching brethren in football and other sports.

“These kids have a genius,” said Calipari, about basketball players and athletes and not just his own at UK, “Our jobs are to help them grow on and off the court, to help them become better men, to be prepared for society; yet they’re chasing a dream and they have a genius. Their genius isn’t just athleticism or size. There’s no way you can be special at this sport unless you have the right kind of mind. Our kids, some have stayed one year, some have stayed two, three, some have stayed four.”

Genius could fall into the hands of Calipari, who gets the creme de la creme every year. At Kentucky, it is, of course, easier to attract these players, en masse, than at most places because of this history and tradition of the program plus Calipari, himself. However, putting these kids together and getting them to buy into his system and way of doing things is truly a talent not many possess.

Check out this year’s Wildcats. There are only three players who average double figures, Aaron Harrison (11.1 ppg.), Devin Booker (10.1 ppg.), and Karl Anthony-Towns (10 ppg.). Add to that the fact that ten players average double figures in minutes with Aaron Harrisonc heckling in again with the most at 25.8 mpg. There is also an astounding 14.6 assists per game as a team. Watch Kentucky and you see how the numbers do not lie.

Defensively, the length and athleticism has been documented immensely. This has led to Kentucky leading the nation in defensively field goal percentage at 35.1 percent and opponents score only 53.9 points per game, third out of the 351 division-1 teams.

This team actually trailed Buffalo and Columbia at halftime early in the year. The underrated SEC adjusted to them as Ole Miss and Texas A&M took them to overtime. Kentucky had major scares at LSU and at Georgia near the end of the season before the coup de gras last week as Notre Dame outplayed the Wildcats for 38 minutes before the Wildcats’ defense rose to the occasion to hold the Irish scoreless for the last 2:35 of the game to pull out the 68-66 win. With that the Wildcats made their last nine shots and overcame an eight-point deficit. Calipari was unfazed as he has seen this team fire it’s jets on more than one occasion to pull out close wins.

“I’ve just seen these kids make plays,” said Calipari, “I trust them. I trust to put them in, instead of running a play, put them in a position to make a play, which is what I try to do.”

Too many times, media and fans think athletes are robots, not human beings. That idea can get over blown with a team as good and talented as Kentucky is this year and in 2012. Everyone looks for the dints in the armor. At the end of the day, though, this team is 38-0 and rolling into tomorrow night against Wisconsin at an unprecedented 38-0. The intangibles are immense. There is a will, a care, and a pride in these basketball players that staples the reason that they are in pursuit of excellence.

“We know we’re not perfect,” explained Calipari, “We’re undefeated, but we’re not perfect. I mean, we showed that Saturday night. We’re really young and showed it a ton. We had some turnovers that were like, ‘What did you just do? You just threw them the ball.’ We did some things that we work on every day not to drive baseline. We drove baseline, stepped out of bounds. There were things that we did that showed our youth. But that being said, you still have a will to win.”

Calipari then defined the team’s mantra by mentioning all of his players in the definition of Big Blue intangibles.

“I’ll tell you, if people don’t realize it, Andrew and Aaron (Harrison twins) still drive this team,” analyzed Calipari of the immense efforts, “Willie (Cauley-Stein) does his thing, Karl (Antony-Towns) was tremendous Saturday, but those other two kids drive this team. Tyler (Ulis) comes in, Devin (Booker) comes in. Those other two, they drove us last year to the final game, and they’re doing the same thing this year.”

]]>http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/04/03/wildcats-almost-in-a-no-win-situation-on-and-off-the-court/feed/0Cavaliers, Aztecs ponder offensive woes in Charlottehttp://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/22/cavaliers-aztecs-ponder-offensive-woes-in-charlotte/
http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/22/cavaliers-aztecs-ponder-offensive-woes-in-charlotte/#commentsSun, 22 Mar 2015 22:10:59 +0000http://collegechalktalk.com/?p=12591Day Six of the NCAA Tournament kicked off with two potentially strong match ups in Charlotte, but at the doubleheader’s end, offensive precision was not in the cards. Virginia was totally tied up by Michigan State’s defense and was left pondering how it could have better attacked the Spartans’ defense in a 60-54 loss that was a surprise to some. Travis Trice and Michigan State ambushed the Cavaliers out of the shoot as he scored 13 of the Spartans’ first 15 points to pace Michigan State to a 15-4 lead just 5:09 into the game. Virginia never led […]

Day Six of the NCAA Tournament kicked off with two potentially strong match ups in Charlotte, but at the doubleheader’s end, offensive precision was not in the cards. Virginia was totally tied up by Michigan State’s defense and was left pondering how it could have better attacked the Spartans’ defense in a 60-54 loss that was a surprise to some.

Travis Trice and Michigan State ambushed the Cavaliers out of the shoot as he scored 13 of the Spartans’ first 15 points to pace Michigan State to a 15-4 lead just 5:09 into the game. Virginia never led as it got to within five at halftime and then four midway through the second half as Trice helped tie up Malcolm Brogdon on defense while scoring 23 points in the win.

“After the first five minutes, it wasn’t a matter of heart or effort,” said Cavaliers coach Tony Bennett, ” I thought our guys laid it on the line, but when we needed a key stop of a bucket to be made, it wasn’t there.”

Duke earned a berth in the Sweet 16 in Houston with a scintillating defensive performance in holding San Diego State to 32.8 percent from the floor and 2-of-13 from behind the arc.

Virginia only shot 29 percent for the game. It was a recipe that was predictable – although, Virginia is consistently the gold standard on defense, eventually they have to score to win the basketball game. They didn’t and couldn’t and in the end, Michigan State’s defense was a trump card as the Cavaliers couldn’t get anything going on offense.

“I think it’s about getting off to a good start,” noted junior Malcolm Brogdon, who was only 3-of-12 from the floor with nine points in 36 minutes, “I think they play a similar pack defense. I think they jam the lane, and when we came off our down, screens, which is a staple in our offense, it just disrupted us more than we should have let it.”

Virginia, at times this season was too defensive-reliant which led to the belief that a balanced half-court offense was all they would need. The Cavaliers could never get into attack-mode for any period of time on offense and in the end that was where the Spartans’ defense hurt them most.

One decisive stretch in the first half saw the Spartans lock Virginia to 3-of-14 shooting for over nine minutes. That was when Trice was starting to do his damage and Michigan State’s lead balloon to 20-11 with 7:00 remaining.

“We’ve tried to improve defensively and honestly, we are going up against one of the better defensive teams, statistically, in the country, but we didn’t try to get caught up in that,” said Trice.

It was the same story in the second half as Justin Anderson had a couple of quick scores on a back-to-back to cut the Michigan State lead to 24-22. Branden Dawson then scored seven of his 15 points in a row as the Spartans went up 34-25 and Virginia could get no closer than four the rest of the way.

“Early on, our thing was to attack from the get-go, get a lead and it gives us kind of a cushion,” said Trice, “The way Virginia plays, if it is a slow down game, the momentum is in their hands.”

Later, the script of Duke’s 68-49 win over San Diego State went about the same way. The Aztecs, lacking a physical presence inside could not coral Jahlil Okafor. He scored 12 points in the first 12:11 of the game, pacing Duke to a 24-11 lead as San Diego State never got into attack-mode on offense until the Blue Devils had put the game away at 35-17 on an Okafor layup in the lane.

San Diego State was much more tentative that they are in their 76-64 win over St. John’s on Friday. The Aztecs were deep in the clock on almost every possession. They started 1-of-8 from the floor with two turnovers. meanwhile, Duke had blitzed to an 18-6 lead behind Okafor, who finished with 26 points in 33 minutes on 12-of-16 shooting.

” They did a great job denying and pressuring the guards so that it was hard to make certain reads,” said Dwyane Polee II, who knocked down five triples Friday night, “That’s a credit to their defense and open ones we did get, we weren’t able to knock down. All credit to their defense.”

Malik Pope knocked down a pair of threes early in the second half to cut the Duke lead to 44-37. That is as close as the Aztecs would get as Duke forced five turnovers and held SDSU scoreless from the floor from 12:42 to 3:35. Meanwhile, the Blue Devils scored on four straight possessions and 9-of-11 trips to take a 64-39 advantage when Dwayne Polee hit a jumper with 3:35 remaining.

“They bothered us with their pressure,” said J.J. O’Brien, a fifth-year senior, who has helped turn San Diego State in a perennial winner and Mountain West Conference contender, “They did a good job of denying our wings and getting us out of our sets a little bit. Their pressure bothered us early and we had some turnovers and missed shots and they had some run outs and got some easy buckets.”

]]>http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/22/cavaliers-aztecs-ponder-offensive-woes-in-charlotte/feed/0Charlotte regional offers two epicshttp://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/22/charlotte-regional-offers-two-epics/
http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/22/charlotte-regional-offers-two-epics/#commentsSun, 22 Mar 2015 16:00:08 +0000http://collegechalktalk.com/?p=12588CBS picked Michigan State-Virginia and San Diego State-Duke and with little question. The two match ups which begin at 12:10 today offer a rematch of last year where Michigan State expelled the Cavaliers from the Sweet 16 while it’s the undervalued San Diego State Aztecs facing off against Duke. The Aztecs feature three fifth-year graduate students with lots of experience vs. the youthful Blue Devils who can play only six people comfortably. (2) Virginia vs. (7) Michigan State Tip: 12:10 – Eastern Region – Charlotte, NC – Time Warner Cable Arena How they got here: Virginia used the […]

CBS picked Michigan State-Virginia and San Diego State-Duke and with little question. The two match ups which begin at 12:10 today offer a rematch of last year where Michigan State expelled the Cavaliers from the Sweet 16 while it’s the undervalued San Diego State Aztecs facing off against Duke. The Aztecs feature three fifth-year graduate students with lots of experience vs. the youthful Blue Devils who can play only six people comfortably.

(2) Virginia vs. (7) Michigan State

Tip: 12:10 – Eastern Region – Charlotte, NC – Time Warner Cable Arena

How they got here: Virginia used the consistent play of Malcolm Brogdon and a renewed and revitalized Justin Anderson to pull away from Belmont, 79-67, on Friday. The Spartans used a 17-4 first half run to take the lead on Georgia and never trailed

Th Cavaliers look to avenge last year’s Sweet 16 loss to Michigan State today in Charlotte.

again. The trisect of Denzel Valentine, Travis Trice, and Bryn Forbes in the back court combined for 45 of Michigan State’s 70 points.

Tony Bennett on the return of Justin Anderson and his heightened play on Friday since returning last week at the ACC Tournament: “He has the green light to shoot the right kind of shots. If you take a guy out of what’s natural to him and make him something, he is not, you have to be careful about that. The first game back against Florida State he was trying to be too aggressive. I remember saying to him after the game, ‘just be yourself.'”

Tom Izzo on whether he need to adjust to Virginia’s line up with it’s size and athleticism: “Maybe a little, but we don’t have enough bodies to adjust it much. Could we play Branden (Dawson) at 3, some, but we are always in trouble at 4 and 5. I think we’ll make some adjustments. We’ll cover some things, but I don’t knw if we will make wholesale changes.”

(1) Duke vs. (8) San Diego State

Tip: Approximately 2:40, Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte, NC

How they got here: Duke used 22 points, six triples from Quinn Cook, and 21 from Jahlil Okafor as they Blue Devils assisted 34 made baskets in an 85-56 win over Robert Morris. The 28 assists were an NCAA Tournament record for the Blue Devils. San Diego State had one of it’s best offensive games of the season in a 76-64 win over St. John’s. Dwayne Polee III and Matt Shrigley combined for nine triples as the Aztecs placed four people in double figures behind stellar post play from J.J. O’Brien, who scored 18 on 8-of-12 shooting.

Mike Krzyzewski, on how the Aztecs’ best offensive output since mid-January might change the approach: “Dwayne Polee may be gaining what he missed by being out and then that gives them another three-point shooter besides (Matt) Shringley and (Aqeel) Quinn and give them even more depth. It stretches and it gives (J.J.) O’brien a chance to make more plays.”

Steve Fisher, on the opportunity to play and beat Duke on the biggest stage in college basketball: “We’re here, we think we can win and probably most people in the country will not think that can happen. We’re coming in to play hard and as hard as we can if we make shots. You know if you have followed us, under line if, We’re as good as most people in the country. We guard efficiently, we guard collectively, and last night we had open shots and we made them. We need to do the same when we play Duke on Sunday.”

]]>http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/22/charlotte-regional-offers-two-epics/feed/0An offensive Aztecs team spells dangerhttp://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/21/an-offensive-aztecs-team-spells-danger/
http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/21/an-offensive-aztecs-team-spells-danger/#commentsSat, 21 Mar 2015 06:11:39 +0000http://collegechalktalk.com/?p=12583Friday night’s late game in Charlotte was considered a test of wills between a defensive-oriented San Diego State team and a St. John’s squad that gets the ball up and down the floor at break neck speed. The obvious didn’t happen. San Diego State had the offense in their 76-64 victory over the Red Storm at Time Warner Cable Arena. The Aztecs, who came into the contest winning with defense and rebounding, shot 47.4 percent from the floor and nailed 9-of-22 three-balls. Their 76 points were the most they had scored since a 77-45 blasting of Air Force on […]

Friday night’s late game in Charlotte was considered a test of wills between a defensive-oriented San Diego State team and a St. John’s squad that gets the ball up and down the floor at break neck speed. The obvious didn’t happen.

San Diego State had the offense in their 76-64 victory over the Red Storm at Time Warner Cable Arena. The Aztecs, who came into the contest winning with defense and rebounding, shot 47.4 percent from the floor and nailed 9-of-22 three-balls. Their 76 points were the most they had scored since a 77-45 blasting of Air Force on January 20.

Steve Fisher has had lots of huge wins in his 24-year career which features 15 NCAA appearances and 21 postseason dates. He gets another Sunday afternoon against Duke. Credit: SDSU Athletics

Dwayne Polee III had his best game of the season after he missed 16 games with an injury as he collapsed on the court on Dec. 23. He went 5-of-7 from behind the three-point line to score 15 points and grab three boards in 19 minutes. Polee staked the Aztecs to a quick 13-6 lead as he hit three of those in four possessions before the first media time out.

“My teammates found me in positions where I could shoot the ball,” said the senior from Los Angeles, who had transferred back into California, ironically from St. John’s, “I found myself open a lot of times because, you know, we have a lot of great players on this team. You know, Coach Fish, he just does a great job of telling me to shoot your shot and I found myself wide open so I give a lot of credit to my teammates as well.”

When he went out, Matt Shrigley was there to keep pace as he nailed four triples, himself. Two of those as soon as St. John’s had hit a 13–1 run to take a 19-14 lead. The hot shooting duo would make one each as SDSU closed the first half on a 20-12 run as San Diego State would never trail again.

“They push the ball and play a lot of transition, that’s a lot of their offense,” said Shrigley, a 6-6 sophomore from La Costa Canyon High School in San Diego, “Dwayne came out, making a lot of shots. You kind of take it upon yourself to say, ‘okay, let me make my shot now,’ and you feed off each other. Coach says it a lot, take your shot, make your shot.

In the middle of the three-point dealing was another senior in post J. J. O’Brien. He was 8-of-12 for 18 points in 34 minutes. Without Red Storm shot blocker Chris Obekpa in the middle, O’Brien and carte blanche. He scored off a pair of rebounds and had a transition slam off a turnover in that 20-12 run and then followed a Polee three with a pair of scores in the paint early in the second half as the Aztecs’ lead hit double digits and would never fall below seven.

O’Brien thought that possibly the St. John’s break-neck style played into San Diego State’s hands, helping the Aztecs to find their offense.

“We haven’t played a team like that all year,” noted O’Brien, who has started 123 of 125 career games for SDSU, “They do a great job of pushing the tempo and they kind of imposed their will on us early, so we kind of had to slow it down and get back to our defense in the second half. We did a good job of getting back to how we play, getting back to our defense, getting inside and hit people on the outside or scoring inside. They do a good job of that but we did a good job of adapting.”

Fisher talked about his fifth-year seniors, Aqeel Quinn, as well as Polee and O’Brien. This group has set the tone for this team to win 27 basketball games and now take a shot at No. 2 Duke on Sunday. Needless to say, the experience of this team will be a trump card for the young, brash Blue Devils, who garner nearly all of the national media attention and headlines.

“If you have a team that will be willing to give up and give of themselves…we had to say, JJ, we’re going to play through you and we want you to be a facilitator when needed but an aggressor to score,” explained Fisher, “He’s as happy if he scores two points or if he scores 22 as long as we win.”

]]>http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/21/an-offensive-aztecs-team-spells-danger/feed/0Cavaliers respond to speed gamehttp://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/20/cavaliers-respond-to-speed-game/
http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/20/cavaliers-respond-to-speed-game/#commentsSat, 21 Mar 2015 00:05:14 +0000http://collegechalktalk.com/?p=12579All season, Virginia’s famed pack line defense has dotted the head lines, gotten Tony Bennett’s team an immense amount of deserved notoriety, and helped raise UVa to No. 2 in the nation. The defense has been so good though that sometimes it seems to limit Virginia in possession numbers and all of a sudden, a game against a lesser opponent becomes closer than expected. That didn’t happen on Friday afternoon in Virginia’s 79-67 win over Belmont. The Bruins actually sped the Cavaliers up and scored the fifth most points on them all year while shooting 47.4 percent. It […]

All season, Virginia’s famed pack line defense has dotted the head lines, gotten Tony Bennett’s team an immense amount of deserved notoriety, and helped raise UVa to No. 2 in the nation. The defense has been so good though that sometimes it seems to limit Virginia in possession numbers and all of a sudden, a game against a lesser opponent becomes closer than expected.

Virginia coach Tony Bennett saw Justin Anderson return to old form Friday vs. Belmont. The Cavaliers look forward to a full roster when they play Michigan State, who excused them in last season’s Sweet 16, on Sunday.

That didn’t happen on Friday afternoon in Virginia’s 79-67 win over Belmont. The Bruins actually sped the Cavaliers up and scored the fifth most points on them all year while shooting 47.4 percent. It actually played in the Cavalier’s hands at the end as four Cavaliers were in double figures with Malcolm Brogdon leading with 22 points in 37 minutes as he made four threes and was a perfect 6-of-6 at the line.

“I think we’re not a team that can’t play faster tempo,” said Brogdon, “I think we can adjust, I think we play well at a faster tempo. I think they were able to get us a little bit out of sorts but at the same time I thought it was more on us than them.”

A speedier Virginia was predicated off the defense as well as the Cavaliers scored 19 points of 12 Bruins turnovers. In addition, as the game went forward, when Virginia had to set up it’s offense, it looked more quickly to attack inside as Anthony Gill and Justin Anderson were able to work some high-low sets and make the extra pass in the paint.

“I think that Coach Bennett told us before the game we’re going to call one of our plays to get the ball on the side and I think we really wanted to take advantage of that,” said Gill, who finished with 16 points and made 8-of-11 free throws, “I think we had some opportunities where we could rebound on the offensive end, too, and we did a really good job of that.”

In the second half, the Bruins seemed to get up more on the Cavaliers on defense and try to make them move and run offense and take shots even more quickly. That”s where the extra passes came in and eventually how Virginia could get to the free throw line 25 times.

“I thought they pressured me a little bit more, tried to make me a little bit more uncomfortable in the second half, but I put it more on me, I just wasn’t making shots, noted Brogdon, who had 16 at halftime.

With Belmont shooting so well and the game at a much more palatable pace, it served to reason that the re-emergence of Justin Anderson would be of the utmost importance. He played much better than he did last week at the ACC Tournament as he entered the game with 14:23 left in the first half and played 26 quality minutes.

Anderson made his first jumper, a three off the left wing, an finished with 15 points and five boards in 26 minutes while going 6-of-7 at the line. He was in much better physical shape and moved more fluidly on defense.

“Looking at Justin’s stat line, I think Darion and Anthony were moving better than they did in the ACC tournament with their ankles,” explained Bennett, “I knew that would be important because it takes an incredible amount of energy and some of our guys’ games are reliant on how healthy they are, so just to have that, to be able to come in with Marial (Shayock).”

]]>http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/20/cavaliers-respond-to-speed-game/feed/0Runs, Injury to Georgia’s Gaines advance Spartanshttp://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/20/runs-injury-to-georgias-gaines-advance-spartans/
http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/20/runs-injury-to-georgias-gaines-advance-spartans/#commentsFri, 20 Mar 2015 22:24:18 +0000http://collegechalktalk.com/?p=12575Running was a prime factor Friday afternoon between Georgia and Michigan State. Not the running game, but making runs in the 40 minutes that the Bulldogs and Spartans fought on the hardwood. Those happened because each team literally took turns at playing lock down defense. In the end of the 70-63 Spartans win, Georgia’s run was last but not quite enough as it had an 11-2 run that cut the score to 66-63 with 21 second remaining. Denzel Valentine then stymied the final Bulldogs hopes with four free throws to advance Michigan State and allow them to become the […]

Running was a prime factor Friday afternoon between Georgia and Michigan State. Not the running game, but making runs in the 40 minutes that the Bulldogs and Spartans fought on the hardwood. Those happened because each team literally took turns at playing lock down defense. In the end of the 70-63 Spartans win, Georgia’s run was last but not quite enough as it had an 11-2 run that cut the score to 66-63 with 21 second remaining.

Denzel Valentine then stymied the final Bulldogs hopes with four free throws to advance Michigan State and allow them to become the eighth program in NCAA history to win 60 NCAA Tournament games as it was their 14th win in 18 NCAA appearances under Tom Izzo.

“I thought we played about three or four different games today,” said Izzo, “I thought Georgia came out and played really well early. We swore we were’t going to let them get to the line 25 and we didn’t. They got there 26.”

The initial Bulldogs’ run was 9-3 as Mark Fox’s defense was assertive and strong, holding Michigan State to 1-of-6 from the floor over the first four and a half minutes. At that point, the Spartans hit UGa with a 16-5 punch that saw Georgia turning the ball over almost at will. The Bulldogs were 1-of-9 from the floor with six turnovers in that 6:56 stretch. Georgia would never lead again despite several charges.

That area of the game was telling because even though UGa cut double digit leads to four, four, and three on three other occasions, they never could get even. It was a strange game and a situation where the pinnacle was in sight for Georgia, but the Bulldogs could never quite get to the peak. There would be a flurry of misses, even a three-possession stretch where they would get an offensive rebound on each, but not convert.

The experience of a Michigan State, who is used to March plus the senior leadership of Travis Trice, Branden Dawson, and Valentine was prime in the Spartans’ advancement.

“As far as myself, Travis, and Denzel, we have been in this position a number of times,” said Dawson, “Travis mentioned that we hand been in this position before against Wisconsin, and we had a big lead and didn’t keep their poise. In this game, we kept our poise throughout the game. We have to lead young guys. We have been put in this position plenty of times throughout the season.”

Trice and Valentine were able to take advantage of injured Georgia star Kenny Gaines, who latest injury which was a sprained ankle, as he wasn’t able to play his normal 30 minutes per game. Instead, he only managed 20, but scored 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting.

“At this time of the year, everything goes out the window,” noted Trice, who scored 15 points and dished six assists in 35 minutes, “You know he is going to come out and play hard. He has a shot to play in the NCAA Tournament, so my things was to just stick to our game plan, honestly.”

Fox knew that Gaines would not be 100 percent, but he also knew that Gaines was a gamer, who could fight through injury. He put his point guard on the floor and let him operate.

“It’s hard to play this game when you don’t practice,” Fox commented and it’s hard to maintain your condition, timing, and everything else that you need to do. Under the circumstances, I think he gave us a heck of an effort. He was certainly fatigued and not nearly the defender he had been all year.”

]]>http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/20/runs-injury-to-georgias-gaines-advance-spartans/feed/0Table setter: Bulldogs-Spartans, first of four in Charlottehttp://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/20/table-setter-bulldogs-spartans-first-of-four-in-charlotte/
http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/03/20/table-setter-bulldogs-spartans-first-of-four-in-charlotte/#commentsFri, 20 Mar 2015 16:22:33 +0000http://collegechalktalk.com/?p=12569Send to Kindle(7) Michigan State vs. (10) Georgia – East Regional, winner faces the (2) Virginia vs (15) Belmont winner on Sunday. Sparty Speak: Michigan State won 8 of it’s last 10 to come into the tournament on a role after losing the Big Ten final to Wisconsin. When they were 15-10 after a 59-54 loss at Illinois on Feb. 7, the Spartans had fallen to 15-10 and tournament opportunities were teetering. “Our back were against the wall,” said guard Travis Trice, “We kind of had to make a decision whether we’re going to fight on lay down and we […]

Sparty Speak:Michigan State won 8 of it’s last 10 to come into the tournament on a role after losing the Big Ten final to Wisconsin. When they were 15-10 after a 59-54 loss at Illinois on Feb. 7, the Spartans had fallen to 15-10 and tournament opportunities were teetering.

“Our back were against the wall,” said guard Travis Trice, “We kind of had to make a decision whether we’re going to fight on lay down and we decided to fight. i think that’s how we got to where we are right now.”

Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox has reinvented his program after losing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to the NBA sooner than maybe expected. (Credit: University of Georgia Sports Communications/ Ashley Strickland)

In the Izzone: This is 18 straight NCAA appearances for Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. It’s a rite of spring to see the Spartans in the NCAA Tournament. He trails only Mike Krzyzewski, who has 20 in a row.

“I think it can be a positive or a negative either way,” explained Izzo, on the Spartans’ NCAA experience, ‘Last year’s team and the year before’s team doesn’t win this year’s games.”

Dawg Barks: Georgia played Kentucky as tough as any one has so there’s not a chance that the Bulldogs will be reading the front of the Michigan State jerseys and lauding their NCAA success under Izzo. Mark Fox has a veteran starting line up, led by 12.3 points and 7.2 rebound sped game by Marcus Thornton.

“This is a team that has always had a goal of winning NCAA Tournament games,” said Thornton, when told the Bulldogs haven’t won in the Big Dance since 2002, “We believe that we have a team capable of that so obviously that is a goal of ours and something we want to accomplish.”

Feeling Foxy:Fox has taken a program that bottomed out under Dennis Felton and has moved it forward into the upper rungs of the SEC and now the Bulldogs are back in NCAA play for the first time in four years. Ironically, that was a matchup here in Charlotte against the Washington Huskies.

“Now, we have had multiple 20-win seasons and multiple post seasons and had a couple of guys go out of school early,” resonated Fox on his Georgia tenure where he stands 106-88, ” That kind of forced us to rebuild it again. I think it shows our program is healthy and hopefully we can play well.”